Author's note: I'm sorry if the formatting is off. I'm copying and pasting this from my AO3 because I don't have this document on my laptop any more.
Clary really didn't need help doing her makeup, but Isabelle insisted. Clary was getting ready at her apartment after all. She figured it would be easier than Jace trying to figure out which dorm building was hers.
"Are you sure you don't want to show more cleavage?" Isabelle brushed eyeshadow over her eyes. "I have a dress you could borrow it would make-"
Clary opened her eyes and grabbed Isabelle's wrist as she was about to put more makeup on her. "Izzy," She said, "It's dinner and a movie. Casual. What I'm wearing is fine."
"Sorry I'm just excited," Isabelle put the eyeshadow away and got the blush out of Clary's bag. "I've been wanting to set you guys up forever but Simon wouldn't let me. He said it would make things weird between him and Jace. It wasn't until he and I got really serious that he started to feel bad that Jace was single."
"Wait," Clary knew Simon had known Jace for about a year, they met in a lecture at school. She never really gave too much thought to how Isabelle knew him. She just assumed Simon had introduced him. "How long have you known Jace?"
Isabelle paused with her blush brush in hand. "Five-Six months I think? He dropped by Simon's apartment when I was there. After that he started hanging out with us every now and then. He wasn't around most of the summer though, he had an internship with his dad."
"What's his dad do?"
Isabelle sighed. "I can't tell you everything about him. What would you guys talk about on your date then?"
"He knows everything about me because of your boyfriend," Clary whined, "I don't want to spend the entire evening asking him questions about himself. That would be annoying."
Isabelle brushed blush onto her cheeks until they were tinted to her satisfaction. "Then don't do that. You'll have plenty of time to get to know him later. Tonight is so you guys can get a feel for each other not learn every dirty secret you might have. Here you do your lip gloss."
"I could have done all of this," Clary muttered.
"Oh, he's here." Isabelle squealed and darted out of the room. "I've got to buzz him in. I'll be right back!"
Clary leaned towards Isabelle's bathroom mirror and gave her hair one last check. She wasn't nearly as nervous as she'd thought she'd be. It helped Simon knew him. Simon wouldn't let him anywhere near her if he had any tiny hint that he was a threat. Sometimes it felt like she had two older brothers.
"Clary! Hurry up!"
"Coming!"
She grabbed her purse off Isabelle's bed and put it over her head. She double checked it for her phone, wallet, keys, and pepper spray—just in case. She dropped Isabelle's lip gloss into the mix and stepped out in the living room. "I'm stealing this lip gloss by the way."
Isabelle turned her head as she opened the door for Jace. "That's fine. I stole it from you anyway. How's it going Herondale?"
"Uh, good?" He gave Clary a nervous smile. "You look great."
"She better," Isabelle said before Clary could respond. She pushed her glasses further up on her nose before continuing, "I did her makeup."
"Izzy," Clary warned.
"Right, not my date." Jace's smile relaxed a little. Clary felt relief spreading through her. "Have her home by 11 or there will be hell to pay, young man."
"Yes ma'am," Jace gave her a mock salute before turning back to Clary, "Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah," She stepped forward and put her arm through Jace's, a gesture that seemed to catch him off guard. "I'll see you later tonight, Izzy."
"Say hi to Simon for me," Jace called over his shoulder as Clary started to pull him out of the apartment.
"I will," Izzy called down the hall, "And you're telling me everything when you get back Clary!"
Clary let go of Jace's arm half way down the steps. "You're friends with Izzy right? I don't have to apologize for her?"
"Oh she wasn't even being that bad," Jace laughed. "She was talking at normal human speed. I meant it, by the way, when I said you look great."
"Well thank you," She hooked her arm back through his as the stepped onto the street. "You look pretty great yourself."
Jace straightened the collar of his jacket, "I do clean up pretty good, don't I? I swear the second that coffee stained apron comes off I'm twice as attractive."
Clary laughed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I don't know, my love of coffee combined with a good looking guy sounds pretty good to me."
"Is that why you agreed to go on a date with me? Because I'm around coffee so much the smell won't fade from my skin for another ten years?" Jace teased.
"Keep joking pretty boy, but you're just making yourself seem more appealing."
"Did I say ten? I meant fifteen." Jace pulled her towards a diner she almost passed. "Dinner first, then movie."
"What is this place?" The inside wasn't very big, a couple rows of booths and a counter with stools. It didn't look rundown, just old like it had been there for decades. Probably family run.
"Taki's. Best French fries in Brooklyn," He promised.
-o.0.o-
"Okay, you were right, these are the best fries I've ever had in my life." Clary took two more from the basket they were sharing. "I can't believe you're eating them with ketchup, you're ruining them!"
Jace cocked his head to the side as he popped the last of his fry into his mouth. "You don't like ketchup?"
"Tomatoes are disgusting in any form."
"Wanna see something really disgusting?" He pulled his chocolate milkshake closer and dunked a fry in it. "Nothing better than chocolate and salt."
"See that's actually good," She said, pointing a fry towards his shake. "My brother and I used to do that all the time. It grosses my dad out."
Jace pushed his milkshake towards her in offering. "I didn't know you had a brother. Simon never said anything."
Clary nodded and dunked her next fry into the milkshake. "Not surprising. Jon kind of scares him. He's two years older than me. He actually graduated with Alec, Izzy's older brother."
"See Alec scares me I can never tell if he means it when compliments me. Or if he likes me at all. He called me Trace yesterday when he stopped by for some coffee," He confessed. "Does your brother not live in New York anymore?"
"Oh he does, he's just overseas. He joined the army straight out of high school." Clary prodded at the nearly empty basket in between them. "Dad was kind of upset. He was hoping Jon would talk over the family business since god knows I have no interest in computers. And Mom was worried because 'no matter how big he gets, he's still her little boy' or something like that."
Jace stared at the table and nodded. "I get it. I've had that argument with my father too. What kind of business does your dad run? IT service kind of thing?"
"Software. I don't understand any of it. Jon at least knows code or whatever but I think working under our dad would drive him insane."
"Wait," Jace's eyes snapped up, "Your last name's Morgenstern, your dad's company is Morning Star Software?"
Clary was a little caught off guard by his enthusiasm. "Yeah? I thought you said you were a business major not computer science."
"I did. My father's company runs exclusively on your dad's software and programs. I spent all summer using them."
"What company does your dad work for?"
Jace looked at his watch. "We're gonna miss the movie. I'm gonna go pay the check. Be right back." Clary watched after him as he scurried off.
Whatever it was his father did for a living he didn't want to tell her. She pulled her phone out of her bag and texted Izzy and Simon.
What company does Jace's dad work for?
Simon was the first to respond.
"work for" good one
Izzy's response came shortly after.
He's the CEO of Idris Advertising why
Clary locked her phone and tucked it back into her purse. She didn't know how she was supposed to react to the fact she was on a date with a guy whose father ran one of the biggest advertising agencies on the east coast. Her dad's company wasn't anything to scoff at but even she was shocked and a pretty impressed.
She decided she wouldn't ask directly again. For whatever reason he didn't want her to know and she didn't want to push it, at least not tonight. She was having a good time. It was the best date she'd been on in a long time. Messing this up was the last thing she wanted to do.
Grabbing one last fry and her bag, Clary got up to wait in line with Jace. "Hey, thanks for dinner and for sharing your milkshake."
Jace smiled down at her, looking a little relieved that she wasn't pushing the conversation about his father. "No problem. It's a short walk to the theater but I figured we could take a cab back to Izzy's. I thought you might be more comfortable with that than walking home in the dark."
On the way to the theater Clary fell back onto some safer topics of discussion. "I told you about my brother, do you have any siblings?"
"No, I wish." Jace kicked a bottle cap so it skipped across the sidewalk a few yards ahead of them. "I don't even have cousins or anything. I was bored out of my mind growing up."
"Did you not have friends?"
Jace rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "My father was, uh, strict and he's kind of a snob so friends were for school."
"Oooo," Clary pretended to sound scandalized, "Does he know you're out on a date with a lowly art student?"
"No," A grin spread across his face, "That's one of the many reasons I'm thoroughly enjoying my time with you. Because I decided to ask you out—with a lot of Izzy's pestering and encouragements but still mostly my decision."
"Look at you being all rebellious, going out on dates with girls your dad might not approve of," Clary teased. She hoped the tone came out as light as she intended. Truthfully she was a little worried about what Jace's millionaire father would think of her. It's a first date Clary. Don't get ahead of yourself. You won't have to meet him anytime soon.
Jace bought their tickets while Clary was busy internally freaking out over a meeting that hadn't happened yet. "Clary?" Jace put his hand on her arm to her attention. She hadn't realized he had been saying her name, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," She promised. "I zone out from time to time, don't worry about me. Come on we need to get our seats before the movie starts."
They found seats near the side of the theater, as far away from a group of thirteen year olds as they could get. "God, I hope I was never that obnoxious," Clary muttered while the kids laughed loudly over the pre-previews reel.
"You probably were but who doesn't regret middle school?" Jace assured her. "Tom Hanks." There was barely a break between the two sentences which earned him a weird look from Clary.
"Tom Hanks doesn't regret middle school?"
"No," Jace laughed and pointed at the screen. A dancing bucket of popcorn and cup of soda were projected next to a trivia question, "The answer to that is Tom Hanks."
"Castaway is the one with the volleyball right?"
"His name is Wilson, but yeah." Clary laughed at Jace's correction and got comfortable in her seat.
She watched him as he answered trivia question after trivia question right. The light from the screen turned his face and his pale hair different colors. In the odd lighting Jace somehow managed to look like the son of someone who would run a multi-billion-dollar corporation. He was sitting up right with his shoulders back instead of slumping and crouching like Clary. He was good looking in the way only people with money were: clear skin, strong jawline, symmetrical features. Clary hadn't looked at him like this before and now that she had she was extremely intimidated.
He turned and caught her staring. A smile spread across his face. "What? Is there something on my face?"
The screen turned a bright white and lit him up well enough she could make out the color of his eyes. Dark blue except one of them had a small section that was a light brown. He's not totally perfect. Clary let out a sigh a little bit louder than she had intended it to be.
"No," She smiled slightly, "You just have really pretty eyes."
"Thanks." He held his hand out for her to take and when she did he leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I've always loved green eyes." His lips brushed the shell of her ear and sent shivers down her spine.
It had been Jace's boldest move of the night and he had timed it well. The lights dimmed all the way down and the real previews started. When she looked back over at Jace he was smirking at the screen. He knew what he did. Any awkward first date jitters were gone.
Two can play at that game. Clary sat up a little and murmured, "And I have a thing for blonds." She punctuated her sentence with a lingering kiss to his cheek.
She fell back into her a seat and a few seconds later she heard Jace mutter, "You win." After another pause he looked down at her, "Isabelle was right, you are perfect."
"If competition is such a turn on for your maybe on our next date we should play Monopoly," Clary whispered.
"Uno or Phase 10 or some other card game might be more second date material," Jace countered, "Monopoly requires a stronger relationship, say married for five years?"
She tried to muffle her laugh to avoid being anything like the middle schoolers on the other side of the theater. "I think you just proposed to me on the first date."
"That is not what happened," Jace whisepered, "You're supposed to wait until the fourth date to propose, everyone knows that."
Clary was unable to muffle her laugh this time and Jace shushed her through his own. Someone a few rows ahead of them turned and glared at the two of them. They both slouched down in their seats and Clary rested her head on Jace's shoulder.